book data
299 ratings, 3.68 average rating, 26 reviews
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published
August 27th 1996
(first published 1963)
by Ballantine Books
binding
Paperback, 320 pages
isbn
0449912167
(isbn13: 9780449912164)
description
In a small Pennsylvania town in the late 1940s, schoolteacher George Caldwell yearns to find some meaning in his life. Alone with his teenage son for ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 412)
This book is sadly underrated among Updike's oeuvre. I think it's his best literary accomplishment. The Centaur is both a distorted, modernized retelling of the myth of Chiron and a moving story of a father and son. The prose is dense and rich, heavy with classical illusion; this isn't the easiest read, but it's worth the work. Updike's erudition and his gorgeous way with a sentence are on display here to a degree unmatched by any of his other work.
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Read in February, 1976
I read most of the Updike novels and short stories then available in the late 70s, and while I liked them I did rather agree with a criticism sometimes leveled at his fiction: There's such a big emphasis on marital issues (i.e., infidelity and divorce) that one is tempted to view him as a one-trick pony.
The Centaur ought to have put that charge to rest. It's been too long since I read it for me to go into much detail. In general I recall the modernization of ancient myth, but my clea...more
The Centaur ought to have put that charge to rest. It's been too long since I read it for me to go into much detail. In general I recall the modernization of ancient myth, but my clea...more
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Read in January, 2005
looking back through this book over the weekend, i realized i had to change my review fron 4 to 5 stars. the characters are engaging. we have all been curious about the lives of the teachers and staff of the school we attend. their connections, biases, weaknesses, strengths are viewed from the view of a student and his father, who happens to be a teacher. but this view is interweaved with greek mythology, each character having his dual mythological persona. updike beautifully switches from ...more
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Read in February, 2007
Updike's "The Centaur" is a sad yet inspired ode to his youth growing up in Pennsylvania Dutch country in the late '40s. Residents of a sleepy rural town are cross-portrayed as mythical Greeks in a surreal switching and overlaying of scene that would work perfectly as a film my Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "The Science of Sleep"). The school-teacher father represents the centaur, half-man, half-horse, symbolically caught between the loft...more
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holy shit, this is a clever book. on the one hand, you have the greek myth of chiron, an immortal centaur dude who has to endure a crotchety wound forever. until he decides to sacrifice his life and free prometheus, the pyro-thief whose liver gets eaten by an eagle, only to regrow each day, and get eaten a-gayn and a-gayn. on the other hand, swap chiron for a modern-day high school teacher, and prometheus for his psoriatic son, and you've got updike's powerfully realistic take on a sort of ridic...more
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I found this book on the floor, next to the recycling bins at the end of my road. I've never read any Updike before but simply loved this. The characters are drawn so beautifully and lovingly. Smalltown America is portrayed through a father and son's relationship.
The whole story covers just a few days. The father is funny, tragic and a little confused about life and regrets, the son is at that awkward stage, about to become a man but with a child's fear of the unknown to come. Really beautif...more
The whole story covers just a few days. The father is funny, tragic and a little confused about life and regrets, the son is at that awkward stage, about to become a man but with a child's fear of the unknown to come. Really beautif...more
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Read in December, 2007
While the power of Updike's prose in The Centaur doesn't match the mastery of the Rabbit novels, this book is noteworthy for its depth and the unusual style in which it is told. What astounded me while reading it was how it reminded me of fine art. You can stroll through a gallery and, depending on the work before you, say, Only Caravaggio, or Renoir, or Matisse, or Picasso could have painted that. Such was my experience reading The Centaur. Only Updike could have written that book.
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Read in October, 2006
This book is a novel equally beautifull and strange from Updike. This was my first reading from Updike's writings and it gave a desire to read more from this american novelist. The thing that I loved most from this book is that the author is skilfully combining real characters with mythological creatures and gods, using this in order to enforce the relationships between them or to emphasis their personality.
My copy of this book is translated into romanian.
My copy of this book is translated into romanian.
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Read in January, 1983
This is perhaps my favorite novel, a beautiful story that mingles myth and memory to tell the story of a few days in the life of George Caldwell, a teacher in a rural town in winter, who is also the Centaur of Greek mythology. The story is simple and beautifully told, and the last chapter contains some of the loveliest writing I have ever read.
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This has one of the most glorious opening passages(spanning several pages) in all of 20th century English-language fiction. And furthermore, it is mentioned obliquely in Nabokov's Ada, despite his notorious reticence to praise his contemporaries. And moreover, it is the only Updike I have ever loved without reservation.
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Read in January, 2001
Far and away Updike's best work, in my opinion. A little less emphasis on middle-class Suburbia affairs, a subject the poetic novelist is guilty of overemphasizing in his large repetoire. Rather, the focus is on fresh and asborbing characters, and a unique fusion of classical mythology and modern times.
Read in August, 1995
recommends it for:
any/everybody
One of Updike's earlier novels, it's semi-autobiographical, hallucinatory, and beautiful. Updike experiments with magic realism to tell the story of a father and son in a small Pennsylvania town and the trial of a mythical beast.
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Read in November, 2008
i really enjoyed the dreamlike quality of updike's writing as well as his many references to greek mythology. the incorporation of science, astronomy and physics counterbalances the other-worldly style of his writing.
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Read in January, 2005
Absolutely love this book. This was my first Updike book. This simple story of a very promethean like father's relationship with his son leaves you entangled with a metaphorical story line of a centaur.
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
Roman and greek mythology geeks
I read this book for a mythology class in college. I thought it was very original. My only problem with this novel was the ending. I found it very confusing. The rest was easy to read and understand.
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Read in October, 2006
a rather sad but extremly poetic tale. rather hard to write something here in a couple fo words about magnitute of the work by one of the best writers of 20th century.
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this may be the only book i've ever read that i actually grew to like only after reading it for class - too many books are ruined for me by academic dissection.
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Read in January, 1979
My first foray into Updike, way back when I was a pup. Truly wonderful; very Joycean, now that I've read Ulysses. So I wonder how well it would hold up now?
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along with the sound and the fury, this is the most beautiful book i have ever read. early updike, lush and courageous
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Read in January, 1989
Don't remember much about this book, but John Updike has never disappointed me.
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